SUBJECT:  Voice of God

QUESTION:  The Bible says in various places that no man has heard the voice of God.  How do you explain the baptism of Jesus when a voice from heaven is heard saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”?

ANSWER:

First the verses speaking to humans not hearing His voice or seeing His shape:

1 John 4:12

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:20

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

John 1:18

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

John 6:46

Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

John 5:37

And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

Now the verses in question where apparently we see God speaking:

Matthew 3:16-17

6  And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

7  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
 

Mark 1:9-11

9  And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

10  And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

11  And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
 

Luke 3:21-22

21  Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

22  And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
 

There are others, such as the voice coming from the burning bush in Exodus.

The voice everyone heard in the following verse was that of an angel speaking for God, the Father.

Matthew 3:17

And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Notice what Jesus said later, after the event of His baptism:

John 5:36-37

36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

If “no man has seen God” (1 John. 4:12) or “heard His voice at any time” (John. 5:37), then whose voice is this? The answer: Since Christ, the former Logos (the Spokesman or Word—John. 1:1, 14) who spoke for God (Gen. 1:26), was His Son and was occupied with being a human being on earth for 33 1/2 years, then an angel must have been “filling in” for Christ during this period.

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